Released journalist says evidence is fabricated

Released journalist says evidence is fabricated

ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News

A group of protesters, including Peace and Democracy Party Istanbul Deputy Sebahat
Tuncel protested Arzu Demşir’s detention last week by carrying her picture. AA photo

One of the journalists detained last week within the scope of the Kurdish Communities Union (KCK) trials said she was questioned on her connections to Kurdish ROJ TV and the Fırat news agency while in custody.

“Neither we nor our lawyers could obtain any information regarding our file due to the decision of confidentiality, which has become standard fare in all political trials,” Arzu Demir said in the article she pennedafter her release. “The connections I had established with ROJ TV and the Fırat news agency as a socialist journalist were the parts of the operation that were pertinent to me,” she said, according to the independent news network bianet.org. Both ROJ TV and Fırat news agency are allegedly linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Demir said investigators claimed she had attended a PKK meeting in northern Iraq, referring to a trip she had taken abroad, but said she was actually at a meeting in Germany in February 2002.

“The plan, which obviously fabricated false evidence, quickly fell apart, however…the date of the conference allegedly held in [Mt.] Kandil was 1.5 years after my visit to Germany,” she said. The Fırat news agency and ROJ TV, a Denmark-based broadcaster, have alleged connections with the PKK whose messages they often carry.

The strongest evidence presented against Demir was the live interviews she gave ROJ TV, Demir said, adding that all the evidence brought up against her colleagues bore the same qualities as well. Another released journalist, Dicle news agency editor Güneş Ünsal said one of the interesting questions the prosecutor asked her was about her meeting with Mahir Çayan. (One of the iconic leaders of Turkey’s leftist movement, who died in 1972) “Even this shows how carelessly they work,” Ünsal said.

The KCK is the alleged urban wing of the outlawed PKK, which is recognized as a terrorist group by the United States, the European Union and Turkey.